ellipsis








noun, plural el·lip·ses [ih-lip-seez] /ɪˈlɪp siz/.

  1. Grammar.
    1. the omission from a sentence or other construction of one or more words that would complete or clarify the construction, as the omission of who are, while I am, or while we are from I like to interview people sitting down.
    2. the omission of one or more items from a construction in order to avoid repeating the identical or equivalent items that are in a preceding or following construction, as the omission of been to Paris from the second clause of I’ve been to Paris, but they haven’t.
  2. Printing. a mark or marks as ——, …, or * * *, to indicate an omission or suppression of letters or words.

noun plural -ses (-siːz)

  1. Also called: eclipsis omission of parts of a word or sentence
  2. printing a sequence of three dots (…) indicating an omission in text
n.

1560s, “an ellipse,” from Latin ellipsis, from Greek elleipsis “a falling short, defect, ellipse,” from elleipein “to fall short, leave out,” from en- “in” + leipein “to leave” (see relinquish). Grammatical sense first recorded 1610s.

A punctuation mark (…) used most often within quotations to indicate that something has been left out. For example, if we leave out parts of the above definition, it can read: “A punctuation mark (…) used most often … to indicate….”

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